Prime Minister Kevin Rudd today launched the Australia in the Asian Century Indonesia Country Strategy.
The strategy outlines how Australians can harness and develop the skills needed to deepen and strengthen our engagement with our important northern neighbour.
Indonesia, as a rising regional power with a rapidly growing economy and a consuming class more than double Australia’s population, presents significant opportunities for Australia and Australian businesses.
The strategy identifies a range of specific pathways to 2025, including updating public perceptions about Indonesia, encouraging Indonesian language and cultural studies, enhancing the mobility of people in both directions, building awareness amongst the business community, and strengthening people-to-people engagement within and between our governments.
The Prime Minister thanked the Australian community for its contribution to the development of the strategy. Consultations were held across Australia throughout April and May 2013 with business, academia, local government, youth groups, and community organisations participating in roundtables and ‘town hall’ style public forums in each State and Territory capital.
In all, five country strategies will be released, covering Australia’s five major relationships in Asia. The remaining four, covering China, India, Japan and South Korea, will be released in the coming months.
The Indonesia Country Strategy and information on the public consultations and submissions can be found at http://www.dfat.gov.au/issues/asian-century/.